


Haunted

by nevereatdirt



Series: NEDWrites Oneshots [26]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Coercion, Dubious Consent, Halloween, Humanstuck, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 08:06:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2540483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevereatdirt/pseuds/nevereatdirt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Cronus Ampora and working at this Haunted House used to be one of your favorite parts of fall, but this stranger has been freaking you out the entire time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be updating this all through Halloween '14. Every four hours [on my writing tumblr] and that's going to mean a grand total of six chapters. Here's to KurCro!

The world around you looks like it’s turned into a roaring blaze as you walk through the small wooded area and toward the old building that’s going to be this year’s big haunted house. You’ve been working with the people that put it on now for the past ten years, ever since your dad told you that you needed something to do that time of year and that you were “too old” to trick or treat. Who the fuck even tells a fifteen year old that they’re too old for that, anyway? You kick a pile of brilliantly red fallen leaves as you walk, watching them scatter into the air like specks of blood only for them to land on the dry grass where they’d started. It takes your mind off of years of resentment towards your father and really, the effect is something that you’ve always loved. 

Taking a deep breath you look up at the canopy of fire above you, hands tucked into your pockets as you take in the rich scent of the decaying world around you. It’s such a gorgeous time of year. So inspiring. Resolving to keep walking down the path and past the few decorations that have already been set up, you stop in the front of the house. It’s old and looks dilapidated, though you know that the infrastructure is still in tact. The house itself has been the subject of mystery for a while in your little town, with so many thinking that it was truly haunted, but you know better. Just like there’s no such thing as magic, there’s no such thing as ghosts. Energies maybe. But not ghosts. You’ve been coming to this house since you were five years old, and you would _know_ if there was anything there anyway. At least you’d like to think that you’d notice something in twenty years. 

Walking into the house you smile as the smell of dust and aged wood hits you. This is the first year that the house has been picked for the scare zone and you’re honestly excited to see what everyone can do with it. Unlike in previous years the main purpose of this house is going to be exploration and the actors, like you, are going to be allowed to do more or less whatever they’d like. It isn’t a huge place, but it’s big enough for someone that’s never been there to get turned around. In fact the only reason you’ve come here so much in your life is because it’s on your father’s land, which is also why things are happening there this year. He donated the house to your scare company and now you’re the one in charge of making sure things go smoothly. 

You’ll be working in the cellar this year, which is actually designated as the exit. A maze is being built down there and you’re more than prepared for everyone to be turned around and scared by even the slightest noise. It’s going to be perfect and you’re going to have so much fun scaring the shit out of the kids that come through. Walking down into the cellar, you look around the aged rooms just to make sure that nothing is too far gone to be used in the house and that there’s as much room as you remembered there. It looks perfect and, finding yourself in need of a cigarette, you leave through the cellar door and sit beside the entrance as you take a deep drag from one only to let it out in a puff like a dragon. Fitting given your scenery. It makes you feel like you’ve somehow set the world ablaze as you sit for only ten minutes and enjoy the acrid smoke filling your lungs. 

When you’re finished, you snub out the cigarette and go back inside, tossing it into an ashtray you’re glad was left in the living room. You take a seat on the old couch with a sigh only to start cough when a cloud of dust meets your compromised lungs. You wave it away from your face and sit back, sighing again as you wait for the rest of the crew to show up. It’s going to take a while if no one follows the path with all of your convenient decorations, and that’s just plain fucking frustrating. You lean back, humming a song to yourself as you wait, until you feel someone sit down beside you. You didn’t hear the door open or footsteps, so you just assume that you must have dozed off. But when you look at the kid you think that you’ve got to be dreaming. 

He’s practically skeletal with a wild mane of black hair sticking out in every direction. You wonder idly when he got here or if he was here when you arrived, but you feel just a little unsettled by him. All you can tell from his face, which is painted like a fucking _skull_ of all things, is that he’s young. Probably eighteen at most, but even then you’re not sure, and he has a strange smile across his face. You could almost call it serene, but at the same time it’s disturbing. 

Sitting up you clear your throat and raise an eyebrow. “Well shit, didn’t realize anyone else was here. Sorry, kid. I’m Cronus Ampora, head of sound design and the scare crew for the house.” You roll your neck and shoulders, cracking both as you do, and then continue speaking. “So you got a name kid, or are you just here to admire me all day?” You quirk an eyebrow and wait for him to say something. 

He shrugs and tilts his head from side to side as he holds one hand up with the palm facing forward and, if you remember right, a sign language “k” going up and down. 

Rolling your eyes you just frown. “I don’t know much sign language kid. Fuck I barely know the alphabet so all you’re doing is making me wonder what the fuck that’s supposed to mean.” You pull out your phone and hand it to him. “Here, just use this and show me on the screen.” 

He gives your phone an apprehensive look and just shakes his head, pulling out his own. It looks old and battered with stickers from bands you’ve never heard of plastered all over it. He flips it open and taps at it for a little while before showing you the screen. 

_KURLOZ. HERE TO HAUNT THIS HOUSE. :O)_

You nod slowly and look back at him, feeling a little uneasy at his use of the capslock. “Sounds good kid. It’s just you and me so far. We’ll be working on this for the next week and a half, and then we’ve got two weeks of scaring kids with a few nights that are eighteen plus. Those nights we get to do whatever we want to the people coming through, but there are a few ground rules I’ll cover when the whole crew is here.” You kick your feet up on the coffee table and shrug. “I got a feeling that it’s gonna be a while before anyone else gets here, Kurloz. Feel free to have a look around in the meantime. Just be sure to meet up back here at five.” 

He nods and tucks his phone into the front pocket of his baggy black hoodie before getting up and wandering off. His footsteps are oddly quiet as he walks away and the entire encounter leaves you feeling incredibly unsettled. 

That evening when you start the meeting, you don’t see the skull faced kid anywhere in the mix. Maybe he lost track of time, or maybe you just hallucinated him, but either way you feel like something is off. You let everyone know the drill for the next two weeks and what they’re going to have to do in each area of the house and to each exit before letting them all go. You aren’t starting until tomorrow and you want to get back to your car before it gets too cold. First, though, you search the house to see if anyone is still there only to see that everyone has left. 

With a sigh you leave the house and lock it up before walking back down the path. You look around at the decorations you’ve hung and stop as you notice one in the distance that you don’t remember. It looks something like a hanging mannequin but it sends shivers down our spines and you wrap your jacket around you more tightly. You’ll have to get rid of that mannequin tomorrow. It’s in bad taste and the way it swings in the breeze… 

You shudder and shake your head before finally turning back down the path to your car. It’s not something that you want to think about, so you pull out your phone and text a few of your friends in hopes that someone will want to do something. Anything to get your mind off of that inauspicious meeting from earlier.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posted early due to sleep sched happy fuckin halloween nerds ahaha

The next few days go normally. The first time you return to the house you look for the hanging mannequin but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere at all. It leaves you feeling uneasy that it’s gone already, but maybe you’d just been tired. Maybe you’d just imagined it. Maybe it was a dream. Either way, through the next week you don’t notice it again, though you do see the mysterious Kurloz around. He doesn’t talk to anyone, but he smiles. He smiles _all_ the fucking time and it’s honestly starting to get to you. He’s too happy for someone dressed in all black and skull paint to ever be, and it just leaves you more unsettled than anything. 

You do your best not to let it bother you every night that he’s there, but every night on your way back to your car you feel like there’s someone following even though you’re always the last to leave the house. Each night you look behind you and you swear that someone is hiding. It’s like being stalked by a predator and you just have such an uneasy feeling in your stomach. 

A week after you first met Kurloz, you find yourself leaving the house later than usual. You’d lost track of time in the basement working on the maze and no one had come down to get you. The ungrateful assholes. You’ve been doing this for so long that you’re actually a member of the paid staff, and yet no one told you that you were done. With a sigh, you wrote down the time on your time card and tucked it back into your wallet for the next day before navigating through the maze and leaving through the cellar door. When you get out of the cellar, you look around and light a cigarette to take some of the edge off your walk back. As you take the first drag, you hear the heavy doors slam and you jump, surprised and relieved to see someone there. 

”Kurloz, what the _fuck_ man! You scared the shit out of me.” He gives you his stupid smile and a shrug, but doesn’t say anything. Nothing different than you’d expected. You offer him a cigarette but he holds his hand up and shakes his head, which you take as a no. “Suit yourself.” You shrug, walking back to the front of the house and locking up. Your cigarette dangles between your lips as you tuck your keys back into your pockets afterward and you turn, finding yourself face to chest with the hoodie wearing teen. 

Sighing, you look up at him and raise an eyebrow. “Man, you’re one creepy fucker. You know that?” You laugh after blowing out a stream of smoke and walk around the asshole blocking your path to go towards the woods. “What are you even doing here this late anyway? The volunteer staff was supposed to be done like three hours ago.” He turn back to look at him, though he hasn’t left the porch. “Come on, man. Let’s go.” 

He looks down at his feet and kicks at the near rotted wood before shrugging his shoulders and walking toward you. You turn away from him and start back toward your car, talking more to keep yourself from panicking about the eerie feeling in the air. “Whatever, man. You’re just kinda weird. I mean for fuck’s sake there ain’t a lotta kids working the house just yet. Most of ‘em won’t even be here until we start casting for the actual roles.” You take another drag and then sigh. “I mean shit I didn’t start on actual construction until like five years ago.” 

His silence isn’t really very good for a conversational partner, but you’re okay with that. Though when you feel a sudden chill, you look into the woods and suddenly feel like you’re completely alone. You turn around and see that Kurloz is gone. How long has he been gone? How long have you just been talking to yourself? You swallow thickly and look back into the woods. It takes you a second to see it, but the mannequin is there again. You haven’t seen it in so long, but with Kurloz disappearing… 

You turn on the light on your phone and run into the woods, half hoping that the mannequin is just a trick of the light. That nothing is out there. As you get closer you hear something to your right and stop running, snapping your head over to see what it is. You stand there, panting and trying to see if there’s anyone there. You aren’t sure what exactly you’re looking for, but you can feel your skin crawling with each passing second that you don’t see anything. You swallow thickly and look back toward the tree where you saw the mannequin and see that there’s nothing there. 

That’s it, you decide, you’re just going fucking crazy. You breathe deeply and run right the fuck out of the woods. When you make it back to the path you’re hacking and wheezing, not to mention cursing your ten year smoking habit. You catch your breath and look around. No one is there. You’re completely alone. It has to just be your mind playing tricks on you at this point, so you just shake your head and get back to your car. 

You sit in the car, feeling your stomach churn as you drive away from your father’s land. You’re almost apprehensive to go back to work tomorrow, but you know that you’ve got to go. They need you to help finish and to get the new actors trained before the scare season actually starts. They need you. They _need_ you. 

Nodding to yourself, you make it back into town and buy yourself a six pack before going home. After what you’ve been through tonight, you feel like you deserve a drink and you finish it before finally passing out into a restless sleep. The rest of the month seems like it’s going to be long, and you hope that you don’t have to leave that late by yourself again. You don’t believe in shit like this. You’re a grown man. This is _nothing_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also posted early due to sleep sched. happy halloween, nerds B)

The night of recruit training comes and you’ve managed to get back into your right mind. The night you stayed late still lingers in the back of your thoughts, like a sore in your mouth that would go away, if only you could stop tonguing it. Your nights have been restless when you’re at home, and you have to do your best so that none of your coworkers or the volunteers know that you’re bothered by anything. After al, a jumpy scare coach is the last thing that they need. You do your best the day prior to calm your nerves, but some part of you is still anxious as you open the door of the house and wait for everyone else to show up. 

You smoke on the porch of the house, waiting for someone, _anyone_ to show up. Someone that you can talk to while you get out the manuals, or someone that you can just blab to and have them actually just tell you to shut the fuck up. You need someone that can respond vocally. Your leg twitches as you smoke your second cigarette. You don’t even know just how long you’ve been waiting for someone else to show up to the house, but it can’t be more than fifteen minutes. You’re chain smoking at this point and nothing about that really bothers you 

Your head snaps up when you hear the soft crunch and crackle of leaves and the first few people start to show up. It’s just three of the younger crew members, but you’re still so glad that they’re here. You rise to your feet and brush off the lingering splinters and dust from the porch and walk to them, your boots making heavy thuds on the the dirt path. You wave at them and are greeted when they’re nearer to you. The first one to pipe up is the short girl. She smiles up at you and tilts her head. “Cronus, what are you doing out here! I thought you’d be hard at work on the basement.” She cocks an eyebrow and adjusts the nordic cat hat she’s wearing. 

Her taller friend stays silent, just staring down at you behind his sunglasses, but the short boy that lives next door to your childhood home just rolls his eyes. “He probably got locked out.” He tucks his hands into the pockets of his dark grey parka and glares up at you. Or at least you think that he’s glaring. It could very well just be his face. “Or what, did you get scared of your own fucking haunted house?” 

Your brows knit together and you push his head back. You’ve known this kid most of his life, but the two of you tend to be on each other’s bad sides when you interact. “Can it, Vantas. I ain’t afraid of the house, I just wanted to chill out here until someone else got here. Don’t want people to think no one’s here, yeah? Be _sides_ , now that you’re all here I can put you to work in stations.” 

Vantas rolls his eyes and pushes past you to stand on the porch. He doesn’t even try the door but you can feel the way he’s glaring at you still. Honestly you’re touched that he harbors so much loathing for you, but the kid just has to let go of whatever conceived slight you’ve given him. After all, you’re all adults and whatever’s bothering him is probably something juvenile. 

Or at least that’s the way it is for you with your grudges. 

Sighing, you turn around and walk up to the door, opening it and making your way to the living room. You just wait on the couch, watching the towering guy and the short girl as they talk and she starts to braid his long, inky hair as more people begin to file into the house. Just half an hour before the official meeting it seems. Some of the new recruits are lingering by the staircase and it just makes you smile. You were them once. You used to linger away from the group nervously in hopes that someone would tell you where to go. You miss that a little. Mostly because now you feel uneasy and there’s no one to help you through that. 

When it looks like everyone that’s going to show up has, the crew leaders ask everyone what kind of work they most want to do and divide them accordingly. You have the lurkers and the shadow men. The ones that are better at being legitimately unnerving than the jump scarers or the tech kids. Their job is to blend in with the surroundings and to only show themselves when necessary. Sometimes they’re set up to appear seemingly out of nowhere. Sometimes they follower house goers through the maze and tap their shoulder, only to disappear around a corner. Either way, it’s a tough gig to get right, and you’ve got it down to a science. 

Unfortunately it means that you’ve somehow managed to wrangle Kurloz into the group. He stands in the back, staring at you you as you explain what you’ll be doing to newbies and veterans alike. The veterans ask the questions that the newbies are too afraid to, because lurkers tend to be a little shy their first go round, and you always just laugh and roll your eyes because you know why they’re asking. With each explanation, the new kids seem to lighten up just a little and the three that met you out front are giving them words of encouragement when they can. 

Kurloz however hasn’t moved from his spot in the back the whole time you’ve been speaking and he’s been staring the entire time. It’s unnerving the way his eyes stay focused on you, and behind that skull paint you can hardly read his expression. 

Even by the final hour of the night when you’re talking to the kids about the eighteen and over nights, he doesn’t seem to move a muscle. To distract yourself as everyone is gathering their things, you talk to the girl that met you in front of the house. “Hey! You got a sec, kitten?” 

She looks up at you as her friend glowers down and all that you do is talk to the cute girl. “Oh yeah, Cronus! What’s up?” She grins up at you with a smile sweet enough that you’re simply amazed that she’s one of the best scarers you have in the house on a yearly basis. 

”I, uh, was just wondering about your sister. I mean I know you got one and we need more eighteen and older actors to run the house late night. Think she’d be game?” 

She scrunches her nose and looks around the room before motioning for you to lean in a little closer. “Meulin doesn’t really like leaving the house this time of year anymore.” 

”What, why?” You furrow your brow and tilt your head. “I thought she loved Halloween?” 

She looks away and then up to her friend with a grimace on her face before looking back to you. “It’s a long story. I don’t want to tell you about it while so many people are here, okay? It’s a really personal and hard thing for her.” 

You nod and lean back up. “Yeah, I get you. Maybe tell me about it tomorrow when you get here? Haven’t even seen her around lately, is everything okay?” 

She heaves a sigh and suddenly her expression turns almost angry. “I don’t know, Cronus. Just leave me alone for now and I’ll think about it, okay?” 

You sigh and just nod again. You’ve had your fair share of rejection in most everything in your life, and this is just another example of that. “Yeah, sure. Talk to you later, Nepeta. You too, Zahhak.” You wave them away and they leave with Vantas, while you stay behind to clean up with the rest of the paid crew. The basement doesn’t take you too long. No fake blood to clean or traps to reset, but getting through the maze, even though you designed and built it, takes you a while. 

You come out the other side and stare at the cellar door. For some reason it sends shivers up your spine even to look at it, but you open it anyway. A rush of cold air hits you and you shudder, wrapping your leather jacket around you more tightly. It’s dark out again, and you can see your breath in the air on every exhale. You feel like a dragon made of fire in a land of ice, especially when you realize that the grass and trees have a fine fine layer of snow covering them. 

It looks like no one else has left the house since the snow’s fallen, so you make sure that no one else is inside before locking up. The snow crunches under your heavy boots and you feel even more isolated that you have on this walk before. But that’s when you look back and nearly fall over in surprise when you see Kurloz. Panting from nervousness, your eyes dart over him, feeling a strange sense of unease. “What the fuck, man! If you’re following so close behind someone at least have the common decency to make _some_ noise! Fuck…” You watch him for a little while and he just shrugs, so you continue on your way down the path. 

When you’re near the end of the path, you look behind you to say something else to Kurloz, but he isn’t there. It’s strange, you think, but you move a little further back down the path, looking for his footprints or where he came off the path. But you make it back to the house and there’s nothing. 

You shake your head slowly, praying that seeing Kurloz tonight had been nothing but some kind of hallucination from your lack of sleep. Because if it isn’t… 

You can’t think about that possibility.


	4. Chapter 4

The first night of haunting. The snow melted earlier that day and it goes more or less as planned, though you’re glad that the new kids haven’t been put off by any of the regulars. By the end of the night, there have been over two hundred house-goers and you’re amazed that so many could make it through in one night. It’s a house record you know for certain, but it makes you wonder just how many are actually going to show up next weekend. Fortunately it takes your mind off of the night before and you don’t want to think about it at all.

The next night does just as well, as does Sunday and you feel relieved that the first weekend is over. Things went well, and you know that you’re going to go home and have a nice long shower to get all of the body paint off and then lay down for a good night’s sleep. At fucking last. You get out of your costume upstairs and then go back down into the basement. It’s your turn to clean it up again, along with Nepeta. She cleans quickly, honestly, and she’s fun to talk to most nights, too.

Though as you’re cleaning up for the night, Nepeta stays close to you and you can feel the way she’s looking at you from behind you. You don’t want to know why she is. Not yet. Instead you don’t say anything until the two of you are finally heading out for the night. “What is it, Nepeta?”

She huffs and hangs her head before looking back up at you. “You kept talking to yourself _all_ weekend. What was that, about?”

You snort and shake your head. “Stop fucking with me, Leijon. I was just talking to all of the actors.”

She rolls her eyes and just shakes her head. “No, I know that. But like… You kept talking to the air just to your right. I thought you were starting to go crazy.” She swallows thickly and rubs the back of her neck and you feel almost horrified and confused.

”What do you mean.” Your throat feels dry as you speak and your palms sweat.

Her eyes scan over you quickly and she shakes her head. “Nevermind. Maybe I’m crazy.”

”No. Nepeta fucking tell me what you mean.”

You swallow thickly as she speaks, both of your brows furrowed. “I mean…” Now it’s her turn to sigh, though her knitted brow worries you. “Okay like all weekend you just kept talking to someone and then like staring at empty space like… Mouthing words to yourself. Like you were reading or something.”

Your eyes widen and you shake, knowing exactly who you had to have been talking to when she saw you all those times. It’s horrifying. You feel like you’re going to throw up and you just shake your head. “No, man, uh… You’ve gotta be fucking with me. I was just talking to Kurloz, that’s it.” You turn away from her and look at the forest path. “I gotta go now, man. Have fun waiting for your friend.”

You leave quickly, not even turning around when she calls after you loudly. You can’t look back. You can’t think about what she just said. Next week is Halloween. You only have a few days left of this. Thursday, the day before, you just have to talk to some of the new actors. That’s all. Just a week and then you’ll be free of Kurloz.

As you walk down the path, you feel like you walk through an icy mist and wrap your jacket tightly around you. It’s just so cold for this time of year, and you try to shake it off.

You have to tell yourself that it’s nothing when you feel like you’re being followed. It’s nothing. It’s _nothing_.


	5. Chapter 5

By Thursday you can’t help but to feel sick to your stomach. Nepeta’s words have stuck with you and you almost feel like you should talk to her about what she’s said. That’s even your plan until you get to the house and the only one there is Kurloz. You tense and furrow your brow as you stare him down. All he does is grin that eerie grin of his and it makes you want to throw up. 

As you move around the house getting everything ready he follows behind you and you can practically _feel_ the way his eyes bore into you. You don’t know why he does this. You don’t know if you even _want_ to know exactly why. He stands so close. Close enough that you should be able to feel his body heat or his breath on you somewhere, but you don’t. It’s like he’s empty. He’s just so wrong. 

Again those words from almost a week ago echo in your mind and you feel like something is beginning to click. Kurloz doesn’t speak. He disappeared that night it snowed… Nepeta didn’t see him. 

Your eyes widen as you recall the first words he ever typed to you. “Here to haunt this house.” 

It can’t be. You’re just going crazy. There’s no way that that’s possible and you laugh at yourself for thinking it, but that’s when you feel words in your head like someone is speaking directly to your mind. 

”Bout time. You’re one slow motherfucker.” The voice is low and raspy and wrong just like everything about Kurloz and you _know_ that it has to be him. Your stomach sinks and your hands shake as you try to deny it to yourself. “Don’t you dare try to get out of this, bitch. You’ve got a lot to make up for.” 

You spin around to face him head on. To yell and scream and to curse him for scaring you for so long. But when you do, he’s gone. You were sure that he was right behind you the entire time, but now you feel like exactly what you’d been denying has to be true. 

Instead of accepting it, you run from the house and down the path, only to run into Nepeta and her friends. Your eyes are wide as you back up and just shake your head. Swallowing thickly, you wait for one of them to speak first. 

Neptea looks around the group and then back to you. “Cronus? Are you okay?” 

”No I’m not fucking okay, Leijon, and I think you know why. You said I was talking to no one all weekend.” 

Her expression is grave and she nods. “You said his name was Kurloz?” 

”Yeah.” Your voice is strained and you still feel like you’re going to throw up. 

”How do you know that name?” 

You huffed and shake your head, brow furrowed. “He told me.” 

”He couldn’t have told you that’s just not possible.” 

You go dumb. Everything around you feels like a dream and you have to convince yourself that that’s what this is. You’re just dreaming. That’s all. “Why.” You practically whisper the word and the boys have gone ahead to the house, leaving you alone in the woods with Nepeta. 

She gives you the two words that you don’t want to hear. The two that you know have to be a lie. It can’t be possible. It can’t. But she still says them, and you have a feeling that it’s true. “He’s dead.”


	6. Chapter 6

You tell the crew that you need to stay home for Halloween weekend. You’ve never had to leave in the last ten years that you’ve done this. It’s something that you’ve never wanted to do, honestly. Until now. 

Nepeta had told you about what happened to Kurloz. How they weren’t sure if his death was a prank gone wrong, or a murder, or a suicide… But it happened years ago and no one is sure why he would appear now. It’s fucking ridiculous. Maybe it’s just the fact that the house is being used the way it is. Maybe it’s just something about the year itself. Neither of you know, but you tell her that she’s in charge of the basement for the weekend. You’ll be back to help clean up if you can. 

After waking up on Halloween, you stay in bed for the first few hours of the day. You order some food and eat in just your boxers, knowing that there’s nothing else you can do. You can’t leave the apartment. You can’t go to the house. Or rather you _want_ to. You want to leave and to do one of the few things that you actually enjoy for the night and the weekend. But you can’t, and you know that. 

Around eight that night, you hear a knock at the door. You shrug and get off of the couch, thinking that it must just be a friend or maybe your landlord. But when you open the door you’re met with a terrifying surprise. 

_Kurloz._

He grins down at you and you can hear his voice in your mind again. “You can run, but it ain’t gonna do you no good, Cronus.” You try to slam the door in his face, but he stops it with a hand more solid than you thought possible. “None of that.” He pushes through the door and you back up, unsure as to what exactly you can even do. 

You stumble back and your legs hit the back of the couch. You grip the back with one hand but your other hangs almost limply at your side. “You’re dead.” You shake your head quickly, beginning to feel like the butt of some cosmic joke. 

His smile stays in place and he moves closer to you. Once again he’s close enough that you feel like you should be able to feel his body heat. His breath. Something. But all you feel is a chill and when he pats your cheek with his hand, he feels like a corpse and suddenly you feel like you’re paralyzed. “That’s right. Took you long enough to figure that out.” 

Sickening laughter rings in your head and all you can do is keep your eyes on his face. You can’t even feel yourself shaking. All you can feel is that icy cold brush of his skin against yours but it feels like there’s something else at work in your mind. It isn’t your voice speaking in your thoughts. In fact you can’t even pinpoint where the thoughts are coming from. They’re thoughts of want and need and carnality that, though you’ve felt things like them before, it’s never been anything quite like this. 

Suddenly it feels like you’re being moved by someone else’s will. You lean in and your feel the cold brush of Kurloz’s painted lips against yours. It’s cold and tough but your body seems to want more despite your thoughts. Your arms are moving to wrap around his neck and he holds you with surprising strength. 

It occurs to you that he could kill you now. That he could take your life just as his was most likely taken. But for some reason those thoughts are muffled by the brush of his skin. He doesn’t seem to want to harm you. All that he’s done so far is kiss you, though his hands are beginning to wander your half naked body. It isn’t terrible, your mind seems to piece together. In fact the strange coolness of his hands is less disturbing that you’d thought and is almost _enjoyable_. 

He pushes you onto the couch and you sprawl without a fight. His voice rings deep and low in your head again. “You want this?” 

”Yes.” 

”You need this?” 

”Yes.” 

Nothing more is said as his hands wander your body even more and you feel him brush against your cock. It’s an almost instantaneous reaction of arousal, one you’ve only ever experienced in your dreams before, but nothing phases you. Without a beat missed, you suddenly find yourself naked beneath him, while he remains fully clothed. His long fingers are pumping in and out of you and you’re left shaking and whining as he does. 

The strange speed of things makes you feel like there’s a part of this that you’re not remembering at all. Like you’ve blocked something out and you aren’t sure which. But when the next thing you feel is the head of a cock pressing into you, all thoughts are pushed from your mind. One of his hands rests at your throat like a constant warning against you doing something, though you don’t even know what that would be, but the other is wrapped around your length. 

His movements are fluid but cold and you just want to scream with every touch, but you stop yourself. It’s almost like there’s something inside of you keeping you from doing so. Too soon, you come and not long after you feel the spasm of his cold release inside of you. It has to be one of the most strangely calming things of your life and, without another thought, you fall to sleep. 

When you wake, you are alone. You sit up and look around the apartment, highly confused by what you think has transpired. You trace your hand over your stomach and feel dried come, which makes you frown in disgust. You hoped that Kurloz’s visit had been a dream, but just looking around you can tell that it wasn’t. Things have been moved, though very slightly, and it leaves you once again with your stomach in knots. 

Getting up from the couch, you wander the apartment and see a note on the fridge with your name on it. Swallowing thickly, you pull it down and read over it quickly. 

_Looks like you didn’t remember me again this year, Cro-bro. Gonna have to change that. Be back next year. Why don’t you go back to the house? Maybe check the woods. :o)_

Again? Didn’t remember him _again_? You can’t help but to dress without a second thought and you drive to the house quickly. There are so many people there in costume but somehow your feet take you to exactly where you want to go. You stare at the body hanging from the tree and, hands shaking, you reach into the deep pocket of the hoodie it has on. 

Another note. Again with your name on it. 

_See you next year Ampora. :o)_

A blow to the back of your mind makes you pass out, though when you wake you’re in the attic of the house. 

Looking around, you’re unsure as to how exactly you got there. You stand up and brush off all of the dust that seems to have gathered on your pants and you go downstairs to help with the cleaning. Your crew mates are surprised to see you but you just shrug it off. Not the first time you’ve worked the attic on Halloween. In fact you’re pretty sure you’ve been up there the past five years. 

You tell them all what a great job they did. How amazing it was that so many people got through the house again tonight. Each person you talk to looks almost shocked to see you, but you don’t think about it. Everyone just assumes that you went home since you were in the attic. Just like the past five years. 

Turning around you see someone in the house that you feel like you’ve seen before, but you still don’t know. Wild, inky black hair frames his painted face and you shake off the uneasiness he leaves inside of you. You turn back around and walk out the house. The same boy that left you uneasy and you can’t help but to notice the sad frown on his face. You offer him a weak smile and wave absently at him. “See you next year, Makara.” 

You don’t know where the name came from in your mind, but you swear that you see him smile and hear laughter in your head as you walk away. 

The next day goes by without a hitch. No one of note shows up, and though it’s the day after Halloween business is still good. When you get home you sit on your couch and are already thinking about the hose for next year. 

Maybe you’ll talk to them about using the house on your father’s land. You haven’t had a haunted house there before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy halloween.


End file.
